Kola nut, coca leaf, and Brad’s Drink

Press, 24 July 1987, Page 17

Kola nut, coca leaf, and Brad’s Drink

Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola owe their existence to the experiments of two American pharmacists late last century. ?■

On May 8, 1886, Dr John Styth Pemberton was melting sugar, mixed with water in a brass kettle heated over an open fire in the backyard of his home in Atlanta. By adding "certain iti-. gradients” which have remained a closely guarded secret since, that day, he perfected the syrup' for a new concoction to add -tg his line of medicines.

The drink was named Coca? Cola after two Of its Ingredient — coca leaf and kola nut ?== Pemberton did not live long enough to enjoy much of tfig drink’s success. He died, apparently of stomach cancer, tig years later.

Americans liked the taste -el Coca-Cola. It became so popular that by 1916 more than 15t imitation drinks were competing for a share in what was fast becoming a lucrative market Among the opponents Coc3> Cola had to contend with -m courtroom battles that year were Koca-Nola, Coca-Kola, Car<> Kola, Kokola, Co-Kola, Coke-Oja and Toca-Cola. But it was not until the 1930 s that the first serious from a drink called made Coca-Cola officials sit up and take notice. tc

Pepsi was the creation of ?a North Carolina pharmacist Caleb Bradham, who was looking for a cure for stomach upsets itj 1893. 3

Brad’s Drink, as it was origin? ally called, was renamed Pepsi? Cola in 1898, but not marketed seriously until 1903.

Bradham, like Pemberton, made very little money from his creation. By the time Pepsi was challenging Coca-Cola In the 19305, the company had gone through a series of bankruptcies and revivals, and was in the hands of sophisticated businessmen from the northern states, v

. The incident that probably triggered the cola wars was Pepsi’s decision in 1933 to cut the price of a twelve-ounce cola from 10 to 5 cents. The move was accompanied by a jingle: “Twice as much for a nickel, too, Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you; nickel, nickel, nickel, trickle, trickle, trickle.” The next significant event occurred in 1950 when Alfred Steele — described as a flamboyant and ebullient think-big advertising man — defected from Coca-Cola to become the boss at Pepsi. He was accompanied by some other middle-management men from Coca-Cola.

Steele and his colleagues overhauled the company’s merchandising system, standardising trucks, uniforms and the bottle. They also reduced the sugar content in Pepsi-Cola. It worked. Sales of Pepsi more than doubled in the following five years. But the new arrival has remained in the shadow of its more established competitor in spite of several bold marketing moves that have kept the cola wars alive.

In the late 19505, Pepsi took its cola behind the Iron Curtain where it reportedly received a “very refreshing” verdict from the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev. ~~

As recently as 1986, when the two rivals were tentatively testing the giant but advertisementresistant Chinese market, Pepsi gave big patio-style umbrellas to the Guangzhou police force. The umbrellas, for officers to stand under while directing traffic, carried the Pepsi logo and road safety warnings. 12